urge parliamentary scrutiny of the state within a state of the Khakis, especially the dreaded spy agency (DGFI). The interference of the Khakis into state politics will once again jeopardize institutionalization of elective democracy, good governance and secularism. The rogues fear social justice activists, critics, politicians and journalists too - Joy Manush!

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Age-old violence and recriminations still provide the fuel for Bangladesh spring

Protesters gather during a demonstration against the Jamaat-e-Islami party in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photograph: Pavel Rahman/AP

Gulf widens between
those who think Shahbag Square rallies are righting
historical wrong and those who see them as anti-Islam

NAJMUL HOSSAIN had
never been to aprotestbefore. But for the past fortnight,
the 45-year-old Bangladeshi banker has regularly made the short journey to Shahbag Square, a broad, tree-lined
thoroughfare in the heart of Dhaka, the capital, to call
for the hangings of Islamist politicians accused of war crimes during the
country's 1971 war of independence.

On Saturday, Hossain
took his six-year-old son with him to the protest, holding a banner with the
message, "Razakars [Islamist collaborators] must be hanged". The
child carried a toy gun. "My uncle was killed in 1971 by the Pakistan army," Hossain
said. "I cannot forgive those who killed and stood with the killers."

On the other side of
town, Shamsuz Zaman, a 58-year-old timber trader, is equally fired up but for
different reasons when discussing Shahbag. "War crimes are just an
excuse," he said. "Bangladeshhas so many problems. The people who
are leading these mobs are atheists who insult Islam, God and the
prophet." The gulf between those who think the Shahbag protests – the
largest in two decades, that some are calling the Bangladesh spring – is a
movement for righting a historical wrong and those who consider it to be a
veiled, government-sponsored attempt to curb the influence of Islam has never
been wider.

At least five people
have been killed since Friday in countrywide violence, including two opposition
activists who were shot dead by police on Saturday morning, local police
officials confirmed. The violence began when conservative Islamists clashed
with police after Friday prayers, protesting against what they said were
blasphemous online posts by bloggers at the forefront of the Shahbag protests.

An alliance of
Islamist parties called for a general strike on Sunday to protest at what they
see as the use of excessive force against opposition activists. The police said
they were trying to maintain law and order.

Much of the mistrust
is rooted in Bangladesh's tumultuous past. Bangladesh declared independence
from Pakistan in 1971. The
Pakistani army fought and lost a brutal nine-month war with Bengali fighters
and Indian forces that had intervened. Hundreds of thousands of civilians died,
many of them at the hands of Islamist militia groups who wanted the country to
remain part of Pakistan.

In 2010, Sheikh
Hasina, the prime minister, and daughter of wartime political leader Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman, set up a war crimes tribunal to investigate atrocities
committed during the 1971 conflict – a move she said would bring closure for
victims and families and heal the rifts of war.

The leader of the
opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Khaleda Zia, the
widow of the independence war's best-known military commander, has accused
Hasina of politicising the tribunal and conveniently using it to hound her
political enemies. All of the 10 people indicted for war crimes by the tribunal
are opposition politicians, eight of them from the Jamaat-e-Islami, the
country's largest Islamist party and an ally of Zia's BNP.

Despitecriticism from human rights groupsabout politicisation and procedural
flaws, the war crimes tribunal has remained broadly popular. Last month the
tribunal sentenced a former member of the Jamaat-e-Islami to death for his role
in the 1971 war. On 5 February, a verdict of life imprisonment was delivered
against Abdul Quader Molla, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, sparking
the Shahbag protests. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have
converged on Shahbag, the hub of protests, adamant that all of the men on trial
for war crimes must receive the death penalty.

This week President
Zillur Rahman signed into law an amendment to the statute that governs two
functioning war crimes tribunals, giving prosecutors the power to seek stiffer
sentences on appeal, a key demand of the protesters. The new law also gives the
government the power to charge entire organisations with war crimes, another
Shahbag demand.

The protesters,
however, have ratcheted up the pressure, saying they will remain camped out in
Shahbag until all of the accused currently before the war crimes tribunal are
given the death sentence. They have pushed a broader set of demands, including
banning the Jamaat-e-Islami and confiscating businesses linked to Islamist
groups.

"We are
protesting 40 years of injustice," said Lucky Akter, 23, a student and
member of a leftwing political party who has become one of the faces of the
protest with her fiery slogans. "We want those who collaborated with the Pakistan army hanged and their
finances cut off."

Analysts say the
broader demands from the Shahbag gathering show how the rifts of the past
continue to play a major role in Bangladesh's present.
"There is an ideological basis to protests," said Muhammad Musa, a
political commentator and former newspaper editor. "There is the
widespread perception that the Jamaat-e-Islami supported Pakistan during the war and
should answer for this."

On Saturday a crowd in
the thousands gathered in Shahbag, joining a hardcore group of activists,
waving flags and chanting slogans such as, "Hang, hang, hang them
all!" and, "The weapons of '71 must fire again!"

The Jamaat-e-Islami,
whose activists have waged violent street agitations against the tribunal, says
it is being scapegoated. Shafiqul Islam Masud, a party leader, said many people
were blurring the difference between a political position and war crimes.
"There are only about 50 people active in the party now who took any kind
of a political position 42 years ago," he said. "It's possible some
of them did not want to secede from Pakistan, but that's a far cry
from war crimes. The party accepted the sovereignty of Bangladesh and is a registered
political party, represented in parliament."

Sam Zarifi, the Asia director for the
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), a Geneva-based legal advocacy, said
a fair trial process was necessary to heal the wounds of the war. "It is
very important that victims of 1971 get justice," he said. "But
justice must be ensured through a fair and transparent trial process.
Unfortunately, if judges are intimidated by mass protests into handing out
death sentences, that's not justice and may unleash yet another cycle of
violence."

Such words of caution
are dismissed by Shahbag protesters as intellectual posturing. The crimes of
1971, which have been thrust into the spotlight by the tribunals, have
dominated Bangladeshi newspapers, airwaves and websites, uniting the youth of Dhaka in an unprecedented
manner.

"The people have
spoken," said Akter. "Now it is up to the courts and the politicians
to implement."

Analysts say the
protests have worked to the government's advantage and distracted attention
from economic and governance issues the opposition had been agitating about.
Last year, Hasina scrapped a constitutional provision under which a
non-partisan caretaker government oversees elections, leading to the opposition
threatening a boycott of parliamentary elections due in early 2014.

"Had it not been
for the protests, now we would all be focusing on next year's elections and looking
at the government's record in office and the opposition's pledges," said
Zafar Sobhan, editor of theDhaka Tribune, an English daily.
"Now, all bets are off and elections seem a distant concern. It is hard to
see how things will revert to politics as usual after this."

Asif Mohiuddin, a
co-ordinator ofthe bloggers' networkthat called for the Shahbag protests,
is keen to point out the group's struggle did not start with Shahbag. "We
have been waging war on religious fundamentalists on the blogs for years,"
he said. "Shahbag has been successful because people are so outraged by
the war crimes."

Yet some analysts say
the narrative of a secular revolution leading the country towards a democratic
future may be simplistic. The protests have polarised the country and led to
tensions between those who identify themselves as progressive.

"Many are worried
about the Shahbag protest's aggressive tone and narrow focus on the death
penalty," said one of the editors ofalalodulal.org, an English
language blog. "I wish the unique energy of Shahbag could be channelled
into the energy and desire to do thorough research, digging out solid evidence
that can result in fair trials that do not require government
contortions."